Herd newcomer Bubba Bell capped a two-out rally in the eighth inning to give the Bisons a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the Bats on Sunday afternoon from Louisville Slugger Field.

Bell’s game-winning double drove home two of the Herd’s three runs in the frame as the team erased a 3-1 deficit for a much needed victory.

The Bisons had just four outs left in the game and were staring at a fourth straight loss before the offense rallied for four consecutive hits. Nick Evans followed knocks from Luis Hernandez and Kirk Nieuwenhuis with an RBI-single to close the Herd to within one.

Making his first start as a Bison, Bell ripped a 1-0 pitch from reliever Jordan Smith down the left field line. Nieuwenhuis scored easily from third, and when Yondor Alonso had trouble digging the ball out of the corner, Evans came to the plate as well.

The 4-3 advantage was the first lead the Bisons held in the three-game series. Louisville scored in the first inning of all three games including a solo run on Sunday. That lead was 2-0 before the Herd cut the score in half on an RBI-single from Jesus Feliciano in the fifth.

Added to the Bisons roster on Sunday, Pedro Beato pitched 1.1 innings in relief to earn the win. The Mets righty is on a major league injury rehab assignment after being placed on the DL by New York on May 4 with right elbow tendinitis. D.J. Carrasco allowed three runs in six innings in the no-decision.

BISONS NOTES: The game was delayed by one hour and 15 minutes at the start because of rain…Sunday’s game wasn’t Bell’s first action with the team. He came into Saturday night’s contest late and singled in his only at-bat…Dale Thayer pitched the final 1.2 innings for his third save of the season.

Sunday, May 15, 2011 (2:05 p.m.) – Louisville Slugger Field

Radio: WWKB AM 1520, bisons.com

Buffalo Bisons (15-22, 5th(-7.0), North)
RHP D.J. Carrasco (1-1, 5.14)

Louisville Bats (22-14, 2nd(-3.0), West)
RHP Scott Carroll (1-1, 5.09)

TODAY’S GAME: This afternoon, the Bisons take on the Louisville Bats in the third game of a four-game series from Louisville Slugger Field (2:05 p.m.). The Bisons lost the first two games of the series and need a win today and tomorrow to earn a four-game split. Following Monday’s game the Bisons will travel to Victory Field to take on the Indianapolis Indians.

VS. THE BATS: The Bats now hold the 4-2 edge in the season series with the Bisons. Buffalo won the first two games of the season series at Coca-Cola Field, May 5-6, but Louisville has won four straight. In the six previous games this season, the Bats have outscored the Bisons, 39-21.

REHAB CENTRAL: During this roadtrip, Mets RHP PEDRO BEATO will be joining the Bisons on a MLB injury rehab assignment. The reliever was placed on the Mets DL on May 4 with right elbow tendinitis. He was 1-0 with a 0.00ERA in 11 appearances with New York this year (17.0IP, 9H, 4R, 0ER, 3BB, 10K).

HOT HITTER: INF NICK EVANS enters Sunday’s game with three-consecutive multi-hit performances. Evans is six for his last 12 at the plate (.500), with a double, a home run and three runs scored. Evans has 13 multi-hit games this season, tied with INF RUBEN TEJADA for the team-high.

HEY MR. DJ: RHP D.J. CARRASCO will make his fourth start of the season today. The righty is coming off his best outing of the season with nine strikeouts in a five-inning victory over the Yankees on May 10. In that game, Carrasco allowed just two runs in five innings for his first win as a Bison. The righty faced Louisville the start before on May 5 and allowed three runs in five innings of a no-decision.

DEBUT STREAK: In each of the last three games, a Bisons newcomer has collected a hit in his first at-bat with the team. INF MICHAEL FISHER collected an RBI-double in his first Triple-A at-bat on Thursday in Buffalo. Friday night, recently-signed INF LUIS FIGUEROA had a pinch-hit single in his debut. After being acquired in a trade, OF BUBBA BELL singled in his first plate appearance as a Buffalo Bison last night.

METS UPDATE: Like the Bisons, the Mets (18-21) fell into an early hole in a 7-3 loss to Houston last night. Former Bison INF DANIEL MURPHY hit his third home run of the season. RHP R.A. DICKEY allowed six runs to fall to 1-5 on the season. The rubber-match of the three-game series with the Astros is this afternoon at 2:05 p.m.

It wasn’t quite the deficit the Herd faced on Friday night, but a four-run first inning was more than enough to give Louisville another victory over the Herd.

The Bats collected an 8-3 win over Buffalo on Saturday from Louisville Slugger Field. Devin Mesoraco hit a three-run home run and Dontrelle Willis worked into the sixth inning for his third win of the season.

Buffalo Bisons (15-21, 5th(-6.0), North)

Louisville Bats (21-14, 2nd(-4.0), West)

Saturday, May 14, 2011 (6:05 p.m.) – Louisville Slugger Field

RHP Brian Sweeney (0-1, 6.00) vs. LHP Dontrelle Willis (2-1, 2.52)

Radio: WWKB AM 1520, bisons.com

TODAY’S GAME: Tonight, the Bisons take on the Louisville Bats in the second game of a four-game series from Louisville Slugger Field (6:05 p.m.). The Bats won big in the series opener with a 15-7 victory last night. The Bisons have now lost two straight and five of their last seven. On Tuesday, the Herd continues their roadtrip with a four-game set in Indianapolis.

VS. THE BATS: The Bats now hold the 3-2 edge in the season series with the Bisons. Thanks to last night’s win, Louisville has outscored the Herd 31-18 in the series. Last season, the Bisons won five of eight games from Louisville. However, the Bats had the biggest win last year as well, a 20-7 victory over Buffalo at Coca-Cola Field, May 3, 2010.

TONIGHT’S STARTER: RHP BRIAN SWEENEY will be making his second start of the season tonight. The righty was signed by the Mets on May 6 off of the Somerset Patriots of the independent Atlantic League. Although he took the loss in his debut on May 8 against the Yankees (6.0IP, 5R, 4ER), Sweeney struck out eight and did not walk a batter. He threw 107 pitches in his debut, the most by any Bisons’ starting pitcher this year.

THREE’S COMPANY: The Bisons finally got their first three-run home run of the season last night. INF LUIS HERNANDEZ hit a three-run shot for his first longball of the year. Of Buffalo’s first 28 homers this season, 22 were solo shots and six were two-run home runs. The Bisons last three-run homer before Hernandez’s was hit by INF NICK EVANS on August 31, 2010 against Syracuse.

ON A ROLL: RHP TOBI STONER was taken off the Bisons disabled list on Thursday so that he could be active for Single-A St. Lucie. The 26-year old right threw five shutout innings with four strikeouts on May 12. It was Stoner’s first action since being shutdown with right shoulder impingement syndrome on August 12, 2010. Stoner is 13-17 over the past two seasons with Buffalo.

FEEL: THE BEATO: During this roadtrip, Mets RHP PEDRO BEATO will be joining the Bisons on a MLB injury rehab assignment. The reliever was placed on the Mets DL on May 4 with right elbow tendinitis. He was 1-0 with a 0.00ERA in 11 appearances with New York this year (17.0IP, 9H, 4R, 0ER, 3BB, 10K).

METS UPDATE: The Mets (18-20) rallied from four runs down to defeat the Astros last night, 6-4. Former Bison OF FERNANDO MARTINEZ hit a pinch-hit two-run home run in the eighth inning. INF DAVID WRIGHT and OF JASON BAY also homered in the win. The Mets take on the Astros again today at 4:05 p.m.

On Friday night, the Louisville Bats put the “slug” into Louisville Slugger Field.

The Bats score seven runs in the first inning and pounded out 18 hits in a 15-7 victory over the Bisons in the first game of a four-game series. Buffalo hit three home runs, including their first three-run blast of the season, but it was not nearly enough in the blowout loss.

Eight of the first nine Louisville hitters of the night reached base against Herd hurler, Casey Fossum. Jeremy Hermida’s three-run home run and Kris Negron’s two-run double gave the Bats a 6-0 edge before two outs were even recorded. Zack Cozart, who started the rally with a lead-off double, drove home a seventh run with and RBI-ground out.

It wasn’t until Louisville had a 9-0 lead that the Bisons dented the scoreboard. Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a solo home run in the fourth inning and Nick Evans went deep in the fifth. The Herd score four more runs in the six, three on Luis Hernandez’s first homer of the season.

However, every time Buffalo scored, Louisville kept their big lead intact. Even after their seven-run first inning, the Bats scored in every inning from the third to the seventh. Todd Frazier took Dylan Owen deep in the fourth inning and Juan Francisco hit a three-run shot of the Bisons’ righty in the fifth.

Casey Fossum fell to 0-3 with the loss. The southpaw saw his ERA jump from 3.58 to 5.87 after allowing nine runs in three innings.

BISONS NOTES:The Bisons had hit 28 home runs this season before getting their first three-run shot of the year…Luis Figueroa made his Bisons debut and collected a pinch-hit single in the seventh inning…Friday’s game was the third time this season the Bisons had yielded 10+ runs in a game.